Ex Machina, or Not Judging a Book (Film) by its Cover

Minor warning that I will most likely ramble a little bit and possibly go slightly off topic but that's a thing that I do fairly often so get used to it. Also a quick note that I have left it totally spoiler free.

Right so I went to see Ex Machina on Wednesday and it took me awhile to fully process what I'd watched and work out what I thought of it. It was only when I told someone about it yesterday that something in my brain finally clicked and I remembered how to form opinions. The film kind of set my brain reeling and I couldn't discuss it afterwards. I forgot adjectives, I forgot emotions, hell, I forgot how to speak English.

When the first advertisements came out for Ex Machina, I missed them. My uncle spotted one, knew it was something I'd like (I fricking love robots!) and then did a wonderful job of having no idea what the name of it was. I actually had to do research to find out about it and was extremely intrigued at the time because Wikipedia only had one line about it and so I got excited. I got really excited. Then it kind of went to the back of my mind what with college things to think about and whatnot but I was still aware of it and I wanted to see it. It wasn't until I decided for definite that I was going to see it in the cinema that I chanced a peek at the reviews and was instantly impressed by the high ratings and mostly glowing reviews.

In other words, there was an awful lot of build up for me and so when I actually saw it, it didn't match up with the way I'd imagined it. I'm not saying it wasn't good, in fact I found it immensely enjoyable to see and found it chillingly thought provoking afterwards.

If you're one of those people like my grandfather who believe some manner of violent action should occur every few moments in a film then Ex Machina is probably not for you. There is a small bit but it's only a few minutes worth altogether, which certainly wouldn't be enough for any of those bloodthirsty people. If however, you like having little clues presented to you for over an hour and trying to piece them together before the big reveal towards the end then you will most definitely enjoy Ex Machina.

So the actual film!

Basically, Caleb wins a lottery at work that means he gets to spend a week on the estate of his employer, Nathan. Lo and behold when he gets there he discovers that he's not there for a little holiday but rather to test an android that possesses what Nathan believes is true Artificial Intelligence. After signing the mother of all Confidentiality Agreements, Caleb gets to meet the android, Ava, in the flesh (ha ha, I'm so funny!). There are a lot of things that I think you see coming in this film. You know there's something not quite right going on, that there's some sinister reason behind the need for secrecy and you also know that Caleb's going to end up with a thing for Ava. I'm sorry that's not even a spoiler. It's that obvious you can see it coming from a mile away.

You go through the whole film and you form opinions about Nathan and you form opinions about Ava. Some assumptions I made turned out to be right but it turned out I'd been viewing something in a better light than they turned out to be. You've got a few moments of horror when Caleb finds everything out then you've got a whole other twist afterwards that I don't think anyone saw coming, one that probably freaked me out more than the reveal did.

I've never studied film or anything so for anyone who has, you'll have to excuse any ridiculously stupid things I might come out with and bear with my brief comments on things that stuck out for me.

The special effects for this film are damn good. Alicia Vikander looks fabulous as an android and the blending of real flesh with the metallic body is quite excellent. The way the android body moves and the sound of the mechanisms within are just so right. I cannot fault the robot effects. Robots are perfect! Also full frontal female nudity, wonderful! And before I head off on some weird little sidetrack, more film technique related things.

Continuing with visuals, there is so much beautiful scenery in Ex Machina. There was filming done in Norway and they just want to keep throwing it in your face by going outside a lot, or sticking the outside world in the background. There's a very strong contrast with this beautiful colourful outside world that Caleb and Nathan get to inhabit and the windowless, grey one where Ava dwells. You have to think about these things, compare things and see what you come up with. Thinking and seeing is what this film is all about as far as I'm concerned. You have to look for the little details as well as the big ones, remember them and consider the whole film in light of all those pieces. One of the biggest questions that could arise is the definition of human and what can pass as human. Appearance is everything in this film, how we view everyone in it, whether we see them as good or bad based on how they act and how they seem.

What was I doing again? Visuals, right. You've your standard way of shooting of "I am pointing this camera here and it is not a shaky camcorder or other mode of recording where you are made hyper aware of the fact that a camera is involved." I know, I shouldn't name things like that but screw it. There are also a number of CCTV style shots. Pure voyeurism! Anyway, they also play around with the lighting. When everything goes dark red, you know that something shady is going on. It's a bit obvious but it is film and it's supposed to be a visual medium. Also the soundtrack is killer.

To sum things up, I liked it. If you like films that actually require some thought rather than mindless consumption then you might well like it too. The pacing might seem a little unusual but if you bear with it, I consider it entirely worth it. Also there's a few highly amusing parts in it including a dance scene that is just unreal.

If you want more detailed robot related ranting then I will likely be turning out one or two posts about robots and consciousness, some ideas that have been thrown around concerning robots and of course, fangirl moments over Isaac Asimov and his writing because I just can't help it.

Ciao for now.

Things you might be interested to know about me

Well, aside from the fact that I can't decide whether to treat the post titles as proper titles with appropriate capitalisation or write normally, I thought I'd share a few things that spring to mind that people might be interested to know about me. Maybe you know me and you already know about them. All well and good. Maybe you'll be surprised by something I list or perhaps you'll say you know at least forty other people that share the same thing. Whatever, it's my list and you may make of it what you will.

1. Cotton wool freaks me out. I mean, it seriously freaks me out. I don't like the texture, I don't like the sounds it makes when you tear it or rub it off something or anything like that. Some people consider it weird but it's a very real thing.

2. I have a surprisingly selective sense of smell. What in hell does this mean, you might be wondering? Well, my sense of smell is abysmal for the most part. Usually, if someone asks me if I can smell something the answer is no. Things I can smell are normally very pungent and/or I don't like them. Onions, especially if microwaved, are something I can't stand raw or partly cooked so of course, I seem to be able to smell them. Plus they do the whole making me cry thing to the point where I can hardly open my eyes and it looks as if I've been bawling my eyes out. Yay!

3. I am somewhat afraid of dolls and ventriloquist dummies (the people sort, not animals). It's the eyes, I just can't look at them. Well in terms of ventriloquist dummies, it's probably the whole face with that fixed grin and- *shudders* I once cleverly chose a film for us to watch at home called "Dead Silence" because I knew it was about ventriloquist dummies. I wanted a horror film and I knew it'd freak me out. It succeeded because it damn well stuck in my brain. I can't get rid of it, it's horrible because I still have a sort of perverse fascination with it. Clearly I hate myself.

4. I am an alien that has arrived on this planet by accident. Seriously though, that's what Asperger's is like. Everyone else seems like they should be aliens but yet they fit into the environment so obviously you're the alien because it's the only thing that makes sense. In my eyes, most people are unfathomable. I can't read facial expressions very well although I can learn them for specific people eventually. Also I can't pick up on tones well either so I can't always pick up on sarcasm, irony, etc. That's the tip of the iceberg but I'll probably discuss my Asperger's at some point in the future.

5. I don't like skirts and dresses. To my knowledge, I have not worn a dress since I was about 8 and my willingness to wear skirts died about that time too. I had to wear a skirt for school for 9 years after that but I avoided wearing skirts for the most part until I was forced to wear one for my Confirmation (totally pointless ceremony all things considered) and I only own one skirt now. The origins of the skirt in question is a mystery and if I wore it, my brain has blocked the memory as being too painful.

6. I know a lot about cats. I've owned quite a few cats but I also had an obsession (Asperger's, yay!) with factual cat books from about the age of 7 until 9 or 10. As a result, I know a fair bit about cats from the average gestation period (56-63 days) to the fact that the O gene causes a ginger coat in males and tortoiseshell coats in females in normal circumstances. Yes, I am that cool. I also identified a family friend's cat as being pregnant without having seen the cat before. I am that good.

7. I really like sci-fi. Surprise! Yeah that isn't anything new to be honest as I had a whole post concerning the origins of my love of sci-fi. I've watched a ridiculous amount of sci-fi shows and I'm getting good at reading it too. I'm a very big fan of Isaac Asimov's robot stories.

8. I know Pi to about 20 decimal places. Why do I know this? Because why not? I sometimes do things just because I can. To be honest, I was supposed to be studying and my brain had the bright idea to learn Pi because it was a distraction from what I was supposed to be doing. I probably could have learned more but I got bored/distracted again.

9. I can't swim or ride a bicycle. What?! You can't do these things? Everyone can do them! Yeah, well guess what? I can't, end of story.

10. I've never seen any Star Wars films. Yeah, that's another one of those things that everyone but me has done. I have not watched Star Wars because... well, I don't have a good excuse but I suppose I'll get around to it at some stage. Along with the other films I want to see.

11. I really like the Sims. I don't know what it is but I seem to derive great pleasure from controlling the lives of (virtual) people. What does that say about me?

12. I once wrote a play about Stargate SG-1 and designed a video game of it. It is immensely cringeworthy in hindsight but I wrote a play, designed a set, tried to work out how to stage the thing and chose a musical accompaniments from pop CDs my best friend had. I also designed a number of mission levels and worked out fun things you could do if you didn't want to go off killing aliens. I had lots of ideas as a child.

13. I used to make clay models of animals. They weren't very good, I was 8 at the time but I made pigs and what not that could serve as pen or pencil holders by putting depressions in their backs. I can't even stand the feel of clay anymore.

14. I met a ghost when I was 3. I had a Victorian gentleman called George in my bedroom over in England who I told my mum was sad. Turned out he'd hung himself in that room when he'd lived there.

15. I'm an only child. I'm fairly sure I mentioned this before but maybe you missed it? My mother wasn't supposed to be able to have children but I happened along just before she turned 40.

16. I really love board games. I used to have loads of board games that I played on my own because I didn't have anyone to play with me.

17. I adore everything to do with space. I've always been fascinated by different planets, by stars, by the size of the universe, all that jazz. When are we going to go live on the moon?

18. I know the capital city of Taiwan is Taipei. I fact successfully drummed into my head by my dear uncle Paul.

19. I had a racing snail. It had a black and yellow shell, the snail itself was pink and its shell was maybe an inch in diameter. I liked that snail.

20. I'm interested in mythology. Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Celtic, no matter what culture it's from I'm interested. I have a good few books on it.

21. I'm useless at keeping plants alive. I try really hard but I either love it too much and give it too much water or I forget to water it and it dies of thirst. Poor plants.

22. I used to call one of my uncle's Auntie. I assumed that he was my Auntie too because his wife was and they thought it was cute so I wasn't corrected until after I screamed it in public.

23. I couldn't pronounce the letter L properly until I was about 5. I used to love reciting Baa Baa Black Sheep which inevitably used to end something like "And one for the yittle boy that yived down the yane".

My uncle Paul and my love of science fiction and other things

Right at this moment, I feel very much in need of my uncle Paul. Paul was my mum's younger brother. Funnily enough when I was younger, I used to be terrified of him. He never moved out of my Nana and Grandad's house and he had his room at one end of the hall and for some reason that room was a scary place. My younger cousins went through this phase as well for some reason. Maybe it was scary because he usually kept his curtains closed so his room was always pretty dark. It could have been because the door was normally shut and you had to knock and wait for permission before you went in and that was scary. Hell, for all I know it was the beard and the deep, growly voice. We all got over the fear bit. I was first of course because I was older but my other cousins came to invade it as well after a few years. Paul used to say, "I didn't have children so how is it I always seem to have them?"

My parents weren't the best really so home was never a great place to be. I used to read a lot because having a different world was usually a better alternative. My mother was wise enough to get me membership for the library when I was seven so I always had more books to read. I was really interested in the universe at the time and I had five million questions (probably not an exaggeration) and I didn't have an answer to them. Then one day, I braved the knock on the door and discovered that my uncle Paul seemed to know lots of stuff. I ended up finding that he wasn't scary at all so why had I been so silly to think that he was going to eat me or something before that? I still have no idea.

I think a certain German Shepherd dog helped to bridge the gap though. Paul got a puppy from someone he knew over in England. He ended up calling him Valco (my mother could never get this and always called him Velcro) and of course, he needed walking and Paul decided that I should come on these walks. I suppose he wanted to get out of my house and away from my parents, even if it was only for a little bit. We used to go for walks on the grounds of a castle nearby until they brought in these restrictions to do with muzzling dangerous dogs but he wouldn't do it because he thought it was too cruel. We ended up walking on the beach instead. The beach was better to be honest because he could draw in the sand, which was great when I wanted things like planetary orbits explained to me. 

I ended up in my Nana and Grandad's house more often and I never really wanted to talk to them. I'd always say hello, head straight to Paul's room and then say goodbye when I was going. Why on earth did I want to sit with my grandparents while they talked about things that I wasn't interested in when I could be eating shortbread biscuits and drinking Diet Coke? He gave me more books to read from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series and I ended up totally hooked on them. At some stage, I came in while he was watching Battlestar Galactica and ended up glued to it. Spaceships, androids, space, what wasn't to like?

One day, an episode of Stargate SG-1 ended up in the DVD player and that was even better. After that I was completely hooked. He had most of them and then ones he didn't have, he got for me. At first, the DVDs weren't allowed leave the room but when he realised the rate I was powering through them, he started lending them to me. It was as good as the library. I'd caught up by the time the last episodes were coming out in 2007 and I didn't want it to come to an end! It'd watched 10 years worth of Daniel Jackson and Jack O'Neill butting heads, the Sam Carter and Jack thing and then you had Teal'c and well... everything! 

A disc of Babylon 5 episodes was added to my last few episodes of Stargate and so when I finished one, I moved onto the other. 5 seasons later that'd come to an end too and then I ended up watching all of Stargate again. I ended up rewatching B5 as well until I was I was given the first few episodes of Sanctuary when it was still only a web series. Firefly was added to the collection too, the disappointment of it being cancelled after one season something we shared, even if a film was released too. He'd started me on the X-Files when everything went downhill.

I used to like to gabble on about whatever crossed my mind so he was forced to sit through hour long monologues that usually had to do with Harry Potter until he went and read them so that he'd be able to talk back. We both puzzled over the mysteries of the sixth book while we waited for the seventh. He got me into Tomb Raider and let me play GTA: Vice City. He used to make 3D models on his computer, buildings usually, and show me the way he could make doors open and close on them or rotate them. He hammered into my head that the capital of Taiwan was Taipei until I remembered it because why not know it? My best friend used to be able to have a debate with him for hours on end. He was always so sarcastic and one day she told him that "sarcasm was the lowest form of wit" and he replied that "Oscar Wilde said that so he was probably being sarcastic at the time". 

There were just so many little things that all came together to make him my best friend. My real best friend because he always seemed to know what I was thinking, always seemed to understand me when everybody else thought I was completely bonkers. In hindsight, there were so many things about him that my family think that he had Asperger's Syndrome too. If that's true then he's the only person in my family who actually how differently I saw everything around me.

Last week, February 6th would have been his 50th birthday. The week before that January 28th marked the fifth anniversary of his death. Before that he went through 11 months of driving my Nana and Grandad in and out of the hospital where his sister, my aunt Maura, was slowly dying until he had a massive heart attack after coming back one night. Maura spent her last few days thinking that he hadn't been to see her because he'd gotten a new job. She died on February 5th, just 8 days after he did without ever knowing what had really happened to him.

There are so many things I have to remember him by now. I have all my memories, all the things we used to watch together, so much of my desire for knowledge and my openmindedness. I had Valco as a living reminder of so many happy days, someone who grieved for him too, until he had to be put down last August. I've so much of him stored away in my head but it's really not the same.

To Paul.

My Morbid Turn of Mind and Murders

The title of this post may come across as a little worrying so I'll explain. Be warned though, you may be even more worried after the explanation.

So as previously mentioned, I will write about whatever springs into my mind. Now the thing that has been preoccupying my brain for the last few hours comes as a result of a turn of mind that often freaks people out more than a little. I might note that I'm currently reading The Silence of the Lambs for college so my thoughts did come from somewhere and I have a good excuse to be preoccupied about this right now. Anyway  I had a childhood filled with horror films and horror stories that I used to get from the library and devour. I grew up when Goosebumps was being aired on the television so the fact I like horror isn't all that surprising. I had plenty of exposure to things that chill the blood.

My parents never believed in the idea of age ratings on films. It didn't matter if it was U or 18s, I was allowed watch it. More often than not they would have recorded a film and would have absolutely no problem watching it if I was in the room. Even better, they often encouraged me to watch them. So I have seen horror films that were highly inappropriate for my age group from at least the age of 3. Lynda and Fergal let me watch Sleepy Hollow at that age despite the fact that they're normally very much in agreement with age ratings. Presumably I was just in the room and they thought it would go over my head. Now I'm not saying that such exposure ensured that I ended up a little bit morbid but I'd certainly say it helped.

When I was 8, I became very preoccupied with the idea of my death. I was obsessed to be perfectly honest. I associated a rapid heartbeat with imminent death at the time so every time I watched any film that was exciting, whether horror or otherwise, and my heart raced, I genuinely I was bidding goodbye to the world. My mother got me out of it eventually, mainly because I had the horrifying realisation that one day she was going to die and she reassured me that dying wasn't a bad thing. So after that rather than being afraid of death, I actually became interested in it.

My parents also liked crime programmes, specifically things to do with murders so I also grew up on CSI (the original, Miami and New York), Silent Witness and other such programmes. I came to enjoy many books that contained information on crimes. I watched Crimewatch (the UK programme where they appeal for information about crimes) and quite frankly I was just always too interested. It makes sense that as I got older, I became more and more interested in true crime and in particular circumstances surrounding murders.

Yes, yes, this does sound very bad but we'll get to some level of vague sanity soon hopefully.

Anyway, I've always been interested in people. People are very odd creatures in my opinion because they aren't me and quite frankly I have no idea in what way they're connected to me. I've Asperger's Syndrome, a high functioning form of it, which means I can adjust better than others with the condition but I still have it. We're sometimes described as neuroatypical and AS is actually on the Autistic spectrum of disorders. So what that means is that I don't react in the way that typical people do. I've always been interested in watching other people who I didn't identify as being like me and seeing what they do while trying to work out why they do it. The vast majority of the time, most people seem stark raving bonkers to me but I can eventually understand some behaviours after considerable time and sometimes with the help of explanations. Therefore, what motivates someone to kill has always been of great interest to me because it's a type of behaviour that most "normal" (I hate that word) people can't fathom. It's a fantastic little puzzle for me to tackle.

A lot of subjects interest me and to be perfectly honest I was torn between doing a number of different college courses, including Psychology and Biology related courses. Psychology really does interest me and I have a real fascination with criminal profiling. 

Now let's take the idea of a murderer and their motivations. They might kill in order to gain something like money, they might kill out of revenge or murder someone in the heat of the moment. A lot of murders that you hear about are one off things though, a murderer only killing once and then being sent off to prison or executed depending on where the crime takes place. Serial killers on the other hand are an entirely different matter. They usually grasp the public imagination, newspapers throwing gory details and horror headlines at you. Some reach a high level of notoriety like Ted Bundy or Jack the Ripper. I'm not alone in my interest, even if some people don't admit to being fascinated by such things. Human beings love misfortune and violence and such things so why would we not watch murder programmes. It isn't that weird.

So yes, I have been reading about Hannibal Lecter once more. I've read the four books about Hannibal the Cannibal, a name that I believe is notorious despite him being a fictional character. If you haven't read them and like rooting for/sympathising with the bad guy then they're definitely worth the read. I do find that you forget that he used to kill and eat people, except when you know... the fact is shoved in your face. Hannibal is fun but he isn't real. Interesting but not real. I know a bit about some real serial killers like Ted Bundy, the Zodiac Killer and the Yorkshire Ripper but I know quite a lot about Jack the Ripper.

Jack the Ripper is probably one of the best know serial killers. We link him with the Victorians, to smog filled London, to characters like Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. He's almost a romanticised character, which is a bit weird but anyway. The thing is though that he's a killer that a lot of people know about it. The Yorkshire Ripper actually didn't want to be called a Ripper because of the connotations that came with the name. There have been many serial killers that have killed far more people and by more horrible means but yet Jack is remembered. It's also something that people want to solve. Lots and lots of people. It's the classic whodunnit but I don't think that people ever think about why.

I did a project on it for History in my Leaving Certificate exam so I'm very familiar with the details. I've read different theories, I've read unbiased accounts, I've looked at newspaper illustrations and photographs from the time. I'm by no means an expert but I'm not clueless either. The thing about Jack the Ripper is that they (I say they because there's always the possibility that the killer was female) created an atmosphere of mystery around their activities that leave people stumped more than 100 years on. The killer killed five women, all prostitutes, by cutting their thoughts with other things occurring post mortem. They weren't sex crimes. They didn't seem to be linked in anyway. They were carried out in a rather cool manner, seemingly dispassionate which would rule out a personal connection. The thing about the Ripper though was that they weren't seen or heard. One of the crimes took place in 14 minutes. The fourth victim, Catherine Eddowes, was brought into an area, killed and mutilated and the killer got away without anyone hearing or seeing a thing in a city that was already highly anxious about a murderer on the loose. Magic was suspected. The only explanation seemed to be in the supernatural because it just seem possible. 

Is was a very big case for the detectives of Scotland Yard, they were only starting to get off the ground at the time. It was a landmark case for them and they couldn't solve it. It also gave detectives a bit of celebrity. It's out of that that Sherlock Holmes came when you think of it, the difference being that he could solve his cases, supernatural seeming or no.

Yeah so I'm going to stop being strange and worrying now. Until next time at least.

The madness that is me

Welcome!

On the off chance that you have somehow appeared here without having any idea who I am, I will list off all those basic facts that you might want to know to get them over and done with and out of the way so you never have to deal with them ever again if you so choose.

My name is Sinéad. I'm nineteen. I'm attending Trinity College Dublin where I am in my second year of English Studies although this might be difficult to believe at times. Due to certain circumstances, I find myself as an only child living with my Aunt Lynda (my mum's sister), Uncle Fergal and a thirteen year old cousin, Kyle. The only pets we have are goldfish but I don't know if they really count because they're just there, you know. You give them food in the same sense that you water a plant and you wouldn't really call a plant a pet, would you? Well, you might but I don't. Anyway all entirely relevant things here.

So after much debating with myself of the will I/won't I variety, I have decided to start a blog. Stating the obvious here in case you might have thought this was something else like a recipe book. Anyway, it means I can put most of my nonsense (I can't get all of it out of me) somewhere that people can't stumble across it by accident. It also means I have a chance to show off loads of my weirdness, or endearing qualities depending on the perspective, and people can look at it if they're interested.

This opener serves as a vague idea of what might pass through my mind at any given moment, which is obviously difficult to pin down. There are a lot of topics that are likely to come up on a regular basis. I write a lot, some of it being the old pen and paper sort of way but a lot of it being in the more readily accessible form of a forum on the internet by the name of Mizahar. Pen and paper sort of writing usually ends up hidden away somewhere scattered in five million notebooks that I would probably burn rather than allow anyone to read. So I won't talk about that writing ever again, or at least I imagine that I won't but being me anything could happen. When writing is discussed it will be of the Miz variety and my characters will come up a lot and I might be willing to post a link on occasion if I think anyone is genuinely interested, otherwise you can go and look it up yourself.

Writing will also be accompanied by gaming related things such as Skyrim, Tomb Raider, GTA, whatever is taking my fancy at the time. It will no doubt be immensely chaotic and is like to have the occasional foray into the world of YouTube as I point to game related videos that have amused me. Being an English student, who occasionally reads for college but mostly read things I want to read, books are a definite possibility leading into the realm of college related things like lectures, tutorials, people I don't like, etc.

Anecdotes from everyday life are a highly likely occurrence, especially as I find sharing things like what my family have done during a particular day makes them seem more real. My family possess a different sort of madness for the most part and so I generally fail to understand and/or believe they could have said or done a particular thing. Also expect pictures of animals, mainly my Grandad's dog, Monty, but I occasionally just photograph animals I come across in everyday life because I'm weird.

If you have made it down to the end of this post without wanting to throttle me or following the more sensible option of closing down the page then congratulations! This is a very, very small taste of what I'm like and so if you can't handle this you're quite frankly screwed because this is me writing very little.

You deserve a biscuit after all that effort but you'll have to supply your own because, you know, this is the internet and I can't shove biscuits into a screen. Well, I can but it wouldn't have the desired effect. You can have an electronic biscuit, which I admit is a poor substitute.

Sanity is not my forte.